Since
Maleficent (2014), the folks over at Disney have been hard at work on giving their old school films the reboot treatment. The next film on their ever-expanding list is
Mulan -- an animated classic that has been considered as one of Disney's best. Over the past few months, we have learned of various castings for the film here and there, such as the signing of Hollywood legend, Jet Li (
Hero,
Fist of Legend) to play , and actor Donnie Yen (
Rogue One, Ip Man).
Well, a new report from
Variety -- courtesy of our friends over at
JoBlo.com -- says that another actor has been hired in a main role. Disney has cast Kiwi actor Yoson An (
The Meg, Mortal Engines) for the key male role. A releative Hollywood newcomer, Yoson was born in China, but immigrated to New Zealand at a young age. Even though he's only been acting since 2012, he already has a good number of international feature films under his acting belt. You can see him next in the upcoming film
The Meg, which is looking to be a pretty fun blockbuster.
Yoson will star opposite Liu Yifei, who has been hand-picked by the heads at Disney for the titular role. In case you forgot her arc in the original 1996 film,
Mulan (based on the Chinese legend of Hua Mulan) tells the story of a Chinese woman who disguises herself as a man in order to spare her elderly father from having to join the military. In the original, Mulan falls in love with her army captain, Li Shang, and it is implied at the end of the film that he and Mulan end up together.
The Chinese actor is reportedly not playing Li Shang, however, but a different male love interest. In a departure from the original film, Yoson is set to play a character named Chen Honghui, who is described as a "confident and ambitious recruit" who joins Commander Tung's unit. He becomes an ally of Mulan's and they later develop feelings for one another. At first, the heads at Disney reportedly wanted to replace the character of Li Shang with a male lead who was white, which obviously caused controversy. It seems Disney have opted to instead cast Yoson -- who is of Chinese descent -- as are most of the other characters in the film.
What do you think about this departure from the original animated film? Are you glad the folks have stayed true to their word and hired a mainly Chinese cast?
Let us know in the comments section below.
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